


Loves Me Knot

by acuteneurosis



Series: Caught in the Act [15]
Category: Skip Beat!
Genre: Affection, Denial, F/M, Red String of Fate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-12-30 16:55:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18319436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acuteneurosis/pseuds/acuteneurosis
Summary: Things get a bit tangled up when you're trying to juggle too many of them at once.





	Loves Me Knot

**Author's Note:**

> Vol 2 Back Cover

“Hya!” 

The shouting that came from the LoveMe room made Yashiro pause, but Ren did not, unfazed by the noise. He did make sure to open the door carefully though, checking to make sure no one was dancing around right behind it. 

Kyoko could be unpredictable.

“Fight!” she chanted, facing away from the door, standing at the end of the work table, a few papers scattered in front of her. She wore a light pink dress, ruffled along the edges, very much in contrast with her behavior. If Ren thought it was odd, it did not show on his face. He watched her pump herself up for a few more moments before she turned around and jumped backwards, almost falling on the table.

“Ts-Tsuruga-san! I didn’t see you.” She fiddled with the pink ribbon tied around her neck, almost as if she was having trouble breathing. 

“I suspect that was because you weren’t looking,” he answered calmly, smiling. “Are you almost ready?” 

“I- I think so. At least, I hope so. I should be. Maybe.” She twisted the toe of her shoe against the ground and interlocked her fingers a few times. “I’ve practiced a lot.” 

“Good. Then you should do fine. You have your character?” She nodded.

“Yes. I’ve thought through everything carefully.” 

“You look pretty,” Yashiro commented, earning a doubtful look from Kyoko and a gentlemanly smile from Ren. 

“Thank you, Yashiro-san. The dress is very pretty. Mok- Kotonami-san helped me pick it out.”

“I wasn’t just complimenting your dress,” Yashiro felt the need to correct, but he was ignored as Ren spoke over him.

“You went shopping together?”

“Yes. She said it wouldn’t hurt the competitive spirit. And then we went out for ice cream…”

Kyoko continued on with her story for several more minutes, her face glowing with the description of her day out with her best friend. Yashiro doubted that she noticed the look of gentle jealousy on Ren’s face, and he stored that away to mock his charge later. It was always good fun to tease Ren about competing with a teenage girl.

“How soon until you leave?” Ren asked when Kyoko paused for breath. She cocked her head, considering.

“Not too long now. I need to finish packing my things and doing my hair, but then I should go. The audition isn’t that far away and I was planning on walking.”

“You should be careful,” Yashiro warned her, a smile belying his serious tone. “You may get picked up by flirts on the way.”

Kyoko blinked. “I-what?”

“Flirts,” Yashiro repeated. “You should be careful, because you might get stopped on the way and be delayed.”

“No one is going to stop me, Yashiro-san,” Kyoko told him politely but firmly. Yashiro shook his head.

“You never know, Kyoko-chan. You can be very cute. There are all sorts of guys who might try flirting with you.”

Kyoko gave him a somewhat suspicious look, forcing Ren to swallow a laugh. “I think you are mistaken, Yashiro-san,” Kyoko told the manager.

“But it’s true. Aren’t I right, Ren?”

Ren gave his manager a withering look before answering. “You do have a tendency to underrate yourself, Mogami-san. And you do look very nice today.”

“Really? I think you both are exaggerating.”

“We are serious, Mogami-san. You attract more attention than you realize.”

“Well, I think you both have known me for a long time, so maybe you’ve noticed a difference, but I think a complete stranger on the street would hardly pay attention to me. I’m not even finished getting ready yet. I still have to fix my hair.”

“What are you doing with your hair?”

“Red ribbons,” she showed him, grabbing them off the table where they had been hiding behind her. “I figured I would tie it back in two bunches.”

She proceeded to do so then, asking Ren about his day and if he had eaten yet. He lied. She scolded, her fingers working furiously as they bickered about his eating habits.

“What were you doing when we came in?” Yashiro asked to bring the fight to a close. It was one of the few occasions where he did not foresee anyone winning if they continued. Kyoko flushed.

“Just… pumping myself up. Kotonami-san and I are auditioning against each other, after all. I have to be at my absolute best.”

“Do you think it works?” Yashiro asked, amused. Kyoko smiled, punching forward with her left hand as she winked.

“Unbeatable charm!” she answered, realizing suddenly that the ribbons hand been wound around her fingers when she punched. She tried to get them untangled so that she could fix her mess and somehow only managed to make it worse.

“Here, let me help,” Ren intervened, catching her hands and starting to tug at the ribbons. She sucked in a sharp breath when he accidentally pulled her hair, and he apologized softly as he kept working.

“Ren, maybe you should…” Yashiro started coaching from the background, giving his charge so many contradictory instructions that it was no surprise when Ren’s hands became entangled as well.

“Wonderful,” he sighed, sending a glare back at his manager. “Hold still for a moment longer, Mogami-san. I’ll get us out of this mess.”

Kyoko smiled and shook her head, tugging at the ribbons and forcing Ren to grab her to stop his fingers from being bent at odd angles.

“Mogami-san…”

“Sorry,” she mumbled, bowing her head as he began to extract his right hand. When that was free, he began untangling his left hand, glad to notice that this also seemed to be freeing Kyoko’s fingers. By the time all the worst of the knots were out, the remaining ribbon hung off both their left hands, looped casually around each of their pinkies. Yashiro noticed this and chuckled. Ren stopped his work.

“What?”

“Your hands,” Yashiro pointed, and both actors looked. Kyoko realized what he was saying first and turned bright red, yanking her hand back. Ren, perceiving the significance, looked hurt for just a second before he removed the ribbon and held it out to Kyoko.

“Here, you need it for your audition, right?” She accepted it with trembling fingers. A few attempts to put it in her hair went rather awry. “Hold still,” he told her, picking the other ribbon off the floor and tying it in a bow around one bunch of hair. She composed herself enough to finish the other while he was working.

“You’re slow,” she commented lightly, if a bit breathlessly. He smiled.

“I can’t say I’m used to doing girl’s hair.”

“Maybe you should practice,” Yashiro suggested. Ren shot him a glare.

“With whom?” he demanded with a touch of irritation.

“I have to go,” Kyoko interrupted, shoving her things in her bag. “Don’t forget to eat, Tsuruga-san.”

“Just like a wife,” Yashiro sighed. Ren resisted the urge to pummel his manager as Kyoko blanched.

“I-I have to go,” she repeated, dashing out the door with no other farewell.

“Thanks,” Ren told his manager in an extraordinarily dry tone. “You were so helpful.”

“Just doing my job.”

“You manage my career, not my life, Yashiro-san.”

“Of course.”


End file.
